NBL crowd attendance plummets across the board

Personally, I'm not a basketball fan, but I respect those who love the game, or at least used to. The NBL used to boast to being the first true national club comp sport. Mainly on the basis they had a team in Perth, while the NSL, which started many years before them, ended it's national boundaries at Adelaide (at the time). How far & fast the NBL has plummeted from the dizzy heights of the mid-1990s is nothing short of mind-bending. I don't know the many reasons, & probably don't care. It would require a more passionate follower to explain what has happened. Are the too many teams? Are they in the wrong locations? For example, does the NBL need franchises in both Townsville & Cairns? And while Canberra & Newcastle go without? National clubs need to be in areas where they can call on strong sponsorship backing. Although that didn't help the Sydney Kings. Is the NBL too Americanised? Does it need more of an Aussie flavour? If basketball had never happened in Australia, it wouldn't bother me. But having enjoyed extraordinary support at times in its life, I can feel sympathy for its present malaise.

few people living in La La land here... to give you an idea lads..in South Australia, the local rugby union comp gets a larger crowd to finals day than the 36ers do.. most south aussies have no idea union is even played here and its 100% ammo... "That’s why the next 12 months is so critical for basketball" mate the last 12 YEARS have been critical for basketball and the admin teams have failed in a big way!

MD & Pip A problem all non traditional non FTA owned sports have is media and the benefits of not only the media but a media that understands your sport. Football & Basket often share similar media space or lack of does basketball have any ideas how to over come this. Pip can you expand a little more on your US sports data .

Trevor, You are right about the negatives. The past off-season was a good example. Two of the most publicized collapses in corporate Australia over the past 12 months just so happened to involve owners of NBL teams, Eddy Groves (ABC Learning) at the Brisbane Bullets and Tim Johnston (Firepower) at the Sydney Kings. Yet most people seem to assume these teams "went bankrupt" or "run out of money", etc. Their owners did. New owners could not be found in such a short timeframe. That is why we don't have these sides in the NBL right now. Nobody can deny there are problems that need fixing -- and the fact that new owners weren't exactly jumping out of their skin to own an NBL team is testament to that -- but people seem to overlook the facts and sensationalize things too much. Another example: everyone seems to know about the fact there are no kings or bullets anymore, yet barely anyone knows about the sport's reform and creating a new a-league-esque competition, etc.

Michael, People sometimes seem to focus on the negative. I was at the Dragons game Saturday night and the crowd was awesome. As you say there's a good foothold in most areas apart from the obvious. It's funny, Tiger fans I've spoken to are wondering where the Dragons are getting their fans from. I think it's the excitement they've brought back to the game this season that's made the difference. The new NBL needs to tap into some of that excitement somehow. And let's face it, there's been a big upheaval this season so far so in reality it's early days yet.

What I find interesting about this is that it shows the NBL is not "dead" anywhere but in NSW and Southeast Queensland. The game is still has a good foothold in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Nth Queensland (and is having a surprisingly good year in NZ). The Bullets and the Kings left, the Spirit and Bullets have taken a hit attendance-wise and the Hawks have struggled in recent times. The challenge now is for the new national league (this year is the last NBL season) to correct this. With NSW and Southeast Queensland being such a big focus for the football codes in coming years, you've got to wonder if its possible. That's why the next 12 months is so critical for basketball.

Lads..Bball has been dead for years...they are simply flooging a dead horse. The NBL should and will be used as an example of 'what not to do' in sports marketing degrees....

Let's not forget Swans crowds are down etc, not to mention some struggling NRL crowds, so bad times for subsidised marginal teams that are from marginal sports in their area Football/Soccer is an interesting one, excellent national team attendance growth in recent, Suncorp crowd was lower vs Qatar because of rain, but fledgling league is entering new phase where it isn't necassarily uncommon to see a slight drop. There are issues that some segment of the fanbase have with FFA policy as well Seems that Basketball will have to reinvent itself like HAL and ANZ netabll champtionship, but has to be wary of the "Franchisey" path they were talking up as that ultimately becomes a bit characterless.

Interesting, some seem obvious, times are tough, some of the regionals might suffer early, the Sydney scene has died completely, given that the Sydney Spirit tried to become a one for all entity, and failed to capture the old Kingz and failed to retain the old Razorbacks and have just become a 'nothing' team. But, there ARE actually a couple with increases...... but, it really raises the question about how long a (semi) pro league can be sustained and to what standard when you're only talking about NSL style crowd figures. On that, is soccer having an impact? well, not all locations have direct competition, and soccer crowds are down across the board. So - - bad times for marginal sports. Basketball perhaps should have been put in hibernation so as to not overly damage the 'brand', ready for a fresh relaunch in the manner of the HAL for soccer.

It's not just in Australia, basketball is on the nose in the US as well. An annual survey that is conducted regarding which sports Americans follow recently returned a 4% figure for basketball, easily the lowest of the traditinal big four sports, and easily the lowest return basketball has ever received (a decade ago that figure would have been in the mid-teens). To put that figure further in perspective, soccer managed a rating of 2%.